Sugar House businesses welcome pause in construction, making customer access easier

SALT LAKE CITY — A big construction project in Salt Lake City is taking a pause until the new year. Phase one of the construction on Highland Drive in Sugar House is complete, and the roadway is open to traffic and hopefully some holiday shoppers.

For months, local businesses in Sugar House have seen a decrease in customers due to construction along Highland Drive between I-80 and 2100 South.

"When you do business, you want the traffic flow, but when the traffic is not flowing cause every road around here is just blocked, it's just killing the local business," said Reginald Meas, manager of Matcha Cafe Kyoto.

"People have just been in the space where they don't really want to come in this area because it's so congested and hard to get to where you're going," said Sarah Snow, owner of Pib's Exchange.

Now there's a temporary pause on the Highland Drive construction for the holidays before phase two starts in the new year. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying two-way traffic has been restored for the time being.

"This pause right now allows us easier access to all the small businesses in the area," Mayor Mendenhall said. "It's so important this holiday season that Salt Lakers support local businesses and shop small."

Businesses like Matcha Cafe Kyoto say they've already seen an increase in customers.

"It definitely helped bring back the crowd. We were just happy they paused the construction for a minute," Maes said. "It's holiday season coming up, and a lot of people are shopping in the area again."

Other businesses like Wasatch Brew Pub and Pib's Exchange say business is still slower than usual. Wasatch Brew Pub even has a construction relief promotion right now to draw customers in. The promotion offers 10% off food and other things through Nov. 30.

"They're doing their kind of pause right now which is nice, but there's still so much going on up and down 21^st that people are still avoiding it," said Carli Bennett, manager at Wasatch Brew Pub. "We're just trying to encourage anyone to make it out this way and we'll try to help how we can and where we can just to show our appreciation for making it out here."

Pib's Exchange has been a Salt Lake City staple for almost 30 years, and even with a loyal customer base, they're still seeing the impacts of the construction even during the pause.

"We did have a little bit of an influx with small business Saturday, which we usually do, but we're still about 20% under last year," Snow said.

All three businesses are hopeful they'll see more customers as more people realize it's easier to access their favorite shops and dining in Sugar House for now.

"It's always awesome when people support small businesses and come and support us so we're looking forward to seeing some new faces as well as some regular customers," Snow said.